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English High headmaster will not return in fall

English High School Headmaster Sito Narcisse announced this week that he will not be returning to the school next fall.

Narcisse is leaving English, located on McBride Street, because he was offered a “leadership position in a school district outside Massachusetts,” Boston Public Schools (BPS) spokesperson Lee Maguire told the Gazette.

Narcisse was not immediately available for comment.

“It’s a great opportunity for him and we’re sorry to see him go,” Maguire said.

Letters and phone calls to parents were planned to go out this week after the Gazette’s deadline.

Narcisse took charge of one of Boston’s worst high schools in 2009. While Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) student test scores last year showed improvement, English still has one of the lowest four-year graduation rates in the system: 50 percent.

Narcisse previously told the Gazette that English High has the second-best rate in the city for retaining students who don’t graduate in four years and making sure they eventually do graduate. The school’s five-year graduation rate is 68.7 percent.

“English still has a long way to go as part of its turnaround,” Maguire said.

Narcise will be part of BPS’s search for a new headmaster, to “make sure whoever joins us in the fall will be able to continue the work he and his staff started,” Maguire said.

BPS will take the opportunity to evaluate “what’s working and what’s not” at English, Maguire said.

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really, they’re going to let him help the search for his replacement? The irony of the “turnaround rules” – he can replace staff AND himself. Just plain funny.